Saturday 6 June 2015

Free the frog

The Safari was out at the bioblitz again but before we started our mini-beast hunt we had a look to see if the other moth trap had had success over night. It hadn't; the moths just hadn't provided the goods so the bioblitz total will be quite a few species fewer than it should have done. Far more interesting than no moths was the plankton trawl. A boat had been out in the river mouth towing a plankton net and microscopes were set up in the lab. We've no idea what we were looking at but there are some seriously unusual tiny animals out there in the water, wish we'd been able to photograph them for you.
Our bug hunt wasn't overly successful the wind was just too strong and too cold for many insects to be out n about. We couldn't find any butterflies, ladybirds, hoverflies and only a few Bumble Bees including Common Carder Bee, Honey Bee, Early Bumblebee and what we think may have been a cuckoo bee Bombus slyvestris which had a white tail with a small black tip.
One of our young attendees lived very close by and had a Frog that he'd found in his garden he wanted to release so he went home and brought back in a little fish tank. We found a suitable place for it in the long grass away and it was duly released by little E in to the big wide world.
A good end to a good day.
Where to next? Planning something orchidy tomorrow hopefully the weather will play ball.
In the meantime let us know who needs releasing in your outback.

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